Reading list
Simple English stories for beginners: 15 easy reads
Every story here was chosen for a beginner reading English: short sentences, everyday words, and no old English or dialect. They are fairy tales, fables and children's classics, so the story carries you even when a word is new.
15 books, all free to read
They are in order from the easiest. When a word stops you, press and hold it in Doomreader: Define opens its meaning, with the app in your own language Translate opens Google Translate, and the word is saved with its sentence in your Words tab, a free vocabulary builder.
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1. Cap o' Rushes
by Joseph Jacobs · from English Fairy Tales
A girl sent away by her father for a strange answer, and a ring in a bowl of soup. A Cinderella story in the plainest English on this list.
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2. How the Raja’s Son Won the Princess Labam
by Joseph Jacobs · from Indian Fairy Tales
A prince rides to the forbidden side of the kingdom and wins a princess with the help of grateful animals. Short sentences all the way.
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3. The Empty Drum
by Leo Tolstoy · from Short Fiction
A poor worker, a clever wife and a greedy king who sets him impossible tasks. Tolstoy retells a Volga folk tale in simple words.
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4. How I Learned to Ride
by Leo Tolstoy · from Short Fiction
Tolstoy remembers falling off a horse as a small boy. True, short and told the way a child would tell it.
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5. Jack Hannaford
by Joseph Jacobs · from English Fairy Tales
An old soldier, a foolish farmer's wife and ten pounds in gold. A funny folk tale with a twist at the end.
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6. Winnie-the-Pooh
by A. A. Milne
The whole book: a bear of very little brain, honey, and friends in the Hundred Acre Wood. Everyday words and short sentences.
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7. The Cat That Walked by Himself
by Rudyard Kipling · from Just So Stories
How the dog, the horse and the cow came to live with people, and why the cat never quite did. Kipling repeats his lines, which helps.
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8. The Crab That Played with the Sea
by Rudyard Kipling · from Just So Stories
Why the sea goes in and out twice a day, in Kipling's storytelling voice. Long, but every sentence is easy.
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9. The Story of the Three Bears
by Joseph Jacobs · from English Fairy Tales
Porridge too hot, a chair too small and three bears coming home. Many children's first story in English.
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10. The Fish and the Ring
by Joseph Jacobs · from English Fairy Tales
A baron reads in a book that his son will marry a poor girl, and tries everything to stop it. A folk tale with a happy end.
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11. The Fox and the Goat
by Aesop · from Fables
A fox stuck in a well tricks a goat into jumping in. Under 250 words, with its moral at the end.
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12. The Hare and the Tortoise
by Aesop · from Fables
Slow and steady wins the race. The most famous fable there is, in about 150 words.
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13. The Selfish Giant
by Oscar Wilde · from Children’s Stories
A giant walls up his garden and winter never leaves it, until a small boy comes in. Oscar Wilde's gentlest fairy tale.
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14. The Cat and the Mice
by Aesop · from Fables
Mice who will not come out, and a cat who pretends to be dead. A fable you can read in a minute.
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15. The Magic Pitcher
by S. M. Mitra · from Hindu Tales from the Sanskrit
A poor woodcutter is given a pitcher that brings food and wine, and loses it by drinking. A tale from India with a clear moral.
Read it as a path: English for learners: Beginner
Eight books in plain English, easiest first, from Winnie-the-Pooh to fairy tales and fables you can finish in a minute.
In the app, the Easy English shelf gathers whole books at about this level, from Winnie-the-Pooh to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, so Discover can show you their passages.
More lists
Read them free
Every book on this list is free in Doomreader: open one and it reads as short posts you scroll, with your place kept and its best pages a tap away. You can listen to any of them free too, read aloud by your device.